Imagine you're in a lesson with an investigator and they say yes to being baptized. You go to validate their decision by reading 1 Nephi 3:7 (which reads: "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he hath commanded them.") but you actually go to 3 Nephi 3:7 which is about the wicked groups in the Book of Mormon: "Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us, and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us- not our slaves, but our brethren and partners in all our substance." ahahaha. 

I've got like two seconds left so one last piece of news. We got a call from President Ames yesterday asking me to create a church tour outline to give to the whole mission! What what! More on that next week. :)

~ Ashley

Oookay man I am way behind on the news! Guess what, yall?! We have TWO baptismal dates. Count em, TWO! Chris, the one who I wrote about a little while ago, has his date on April 5th (five days before I go back to Nauvoo) and last night we set a date with a woman named Mercedes for her grandson's birthday, June 2nd. That was an awesome, Spirit-directed lesson. We're also working with another couple who I know would be baptized but they've had crazy things happen lately (DUIs and a week in jail and consequently CPS coming out to check on their four-year-old daughter). So I probably won't be able to see them progress much more. Everyone is so promising in this area! I love it! 

Maybe I've talked about this before but it has been made re-evident to me. I am a sower missionary, not a reaper. Everything I've been called to do has to do with sowing. I mean, let's be real, I'm a Visitor's Center Sister. I know my job in this area was to just give it a kick-start and get it going for the future. But hey, if that was the purpose of my mission- to set things up for future missionaries- I'm cool with that. I fulfilled the purpose Heavenly Father sent me here to do.

This past Tuesday was probably the best EVER. Okay first of all it was 80 degrees. Yeah, 80 degrees in March. I love Texas. We taught TEN total lessons. Ten, man. A good day might be 4 or 5. TEN. YEAH!

Alright folks Sister Munro OUT!

Number three from last week!

3- Sister Gentry and I stopped at a gas station and got some candy from inside (this was actually a hispanic-oriented [orient, hahaha] place and most of their stuff was mexican candy). As we were leaving, we passed a truck with five people in it and got the prompting to talk to them. I was like, no way. Nope. Excuse me, that is so awkward. So I kept walking and I backed Sister Gentry out of the parking spot, all the while just looking at this parked truck with all these people in it. I opened the door of our car and said "Sister Gentry... Is it socially unacceptable to knock on someone's car window?" "...Yes, Sister Munro. Uhhh why?" And at that moment I saw my opportunity and went for it. As predicted, it was super awkward but I gave them a Plan of Salvation pamphlet (it was supposed to be Restoration but all that I kept grabbing out of my bag was Plan of Salvation so I was like FINE). This kind of thing has happened before, where we feel that we should talk to a certain person or go somewhere when we don't know why and we see the repercussions weeks later. It'll be cool to see if/when something comes of that. 

Guess what happened on Wednesday! Two things. One, it was my EIGHT MONTH MARK!! Eight months, guys! Wow! Two, we went to the temple! It was such a great day. We went with our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Robbins, our whole district (Elders Vaoga, Beard, Spencer, and Jones), and Ryan, who is going on his mission to Minnesota on the 19th. 

We had a lesson with a really tough investigator named Ron. He's been on the records since 2011, so he's had missionaries for a long time. It was a good lesson on agency where basically we said, 'dude, if you don't want blessings or peace or joy or guidance or a good relationship with God, you don't have to have it. But we are here to show you how you CAN have all of that.' It was super inspired and we've used it with other investigators and less-actives since. 

I got to teach a lesson in sign language! I've mentioned the less-active deaf couple before. I taught her the Restoration while voicing (as best I could) for Sister Gentry. When I was explaining about Joseph Smith, there was a knock on the door. Sister Sellars (the deaf less-active) looked out the window and said it was one of "our people". She opened the door and there stood the Young Single Adult ward sisters! What! So they came in and we all talked for a bit and somehow the conversation started on how Brother Sellars (who is hard-of-hearing) is musically talented. So he played us all some soul music on the piano. It was fun and super strange- I've never had other missionaries come to the door while we were in a lesson!

When we left, Sister Gentry told me it was the best Restoration she's ever heard me teach. If only I could teach in sign language all the time! 

Transfer calls were this morning and, as we guessed, both Sister Gentry and I are STAYING! Score. Another transfer in the Wonderland. I'll go back to Nauvoo April 10th. 

We're supposed to be up at 6:30 every day, even P days. When the zone leaders called for transfers at 7:20, the elder asked how we were and I said "A bit upset we had to get up early for this, but go ahead and tell us." He had me repeat it to make sure he heard what I was saying and then there was a long silence... I finally had to tell him I was kidding and that we definitely got up on time. :) So after he told us we were staying he says "Oh but there is one change. You guys are having your truck taken away, you've been abusing it. You will be getting scooters." A joke for a joke. :)

That's all, folks!

~ Ashley